Cheap and SSD are words that aren't commonly said in the same sentence. SSDs are typically much more expensive per gigabyte than traditional hard drives, but that price difference is going away. As the price of SSDs continues to decline, the price of hard drives has been increasing in the wake of flooding in Thailand that caused shortages.

Crucial has unveiled a new series of SSDs that are relatively cheap and aimed at older computers running 3Gb/s SATA ports. The new line of SSDs is called the Crucial v4 and they come in 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB capacities. Pricing is $49.99, $69.99, $99.99, and $184.99 respectively from Newegg.

"The Crucial v4 SSD boils down to two things: performance and value," said Robert Wheadon, senior worldwide product manager, Crucial. "Most consumers realize that SSDs help their computers start quicker and run faster, and are a more durable alternative to hard drives, but many don't realize that most SSDs outperform the data transfer capabilities of their SATA 2 machines. With the Crucial v4 SSD, we've come up with a product that's designed to bring the most value out of a SATA 2 system without paying for extra performance that can't be used."

At those bargain prices you can't expect world-class performance, but the v4 range still performs well. Crucial promises read speeds of up to 230 MB/s and write speeds of up to 190 MB/s.

I'd like to see where that might be. I got an Agility 4 256GB form Microcenter for $189, but the cheapest I've seen the Vertex 4 256GB was $209, also at Microcenter. NewEgg matched the prices shortly after Microcenter published them.

Still, the Agility 4 256GB sounds like a lot more capable drive than this Crucial V4 256GB, at the same price. I've seen a lot more capable drives at that price point. I think Crucial is making a market mistake with this one. Then again, they do that a lot.

The Vertex/Agility 4 lines are a lot more reliable than the older lines, too. I've got one of each now running in my main machine. (Agility 4 256GB for my main OS drive and most of my apps and games, Vertex 4 128GB for WoW and Diablo III. 4X 750GB WD Caviar Black in RAID 5 for data storage.) I have no fears of reliability or performance problems with either.

Also consider Agility 4 is a SATA III device, while these Crucials are a SATA II (rated below saturation speed). The Agility 4 will be faster even on SATA II, and the new OCZ cooked up indillex controllers in the 4 series are doing great by all accounts.

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